On Sunday, 19th of October, Poland marked the 24th anniversary of the abduction of  Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, martyr of the communist regime. The death of Fr. Popiełuszko is still shrouded in controversy.

Joanna Najfeld reports

Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko worked at the Warsaw parish, where he regularly said Masses for Poland, even at the times of the martial law in early 1980s. He openly criticized the abuses of the communist power, preached about human rights, opposition to violence and hatred, and the ideals of the Solidarity movement.

In one of his last homilies, Fr. Jerzy talked about how communism takes away God and human dignity away from the people: 'The cross of our country is that for many years, there have been some strange insistence on taking away God from the people, especially from the youth. The insistence to impose an ideology which has nothing to do with the thousand years of Christian tradition of our nation.'

On top of his civil courage to speak up the truth in the times of totalitarian repression, Fr. Jerzy was a humble, peaceful man, says his colleague, Prelate Zygmunt Malacki: 'He was not argumentative, but flexible and open-minded. He would never raise his voice. He mollified and united people, but never divided them.'

The communist secret police threatened and persecuted the priest until on October 19th, 1984, they abducted, tortured and brutally murdered him. Although alleged murderers have already served their sentences, the question of responsibility for commissioning and carrying out the murder, as well as its actual date and circumstances, remain shrouded in controversy, says Leszek Szymowski, investigative journalist of the WPROST weekly, who has been working on the subject of Fr. Popiełuszko's abduction and death: 'We know only that four officers of communist regime killed him but up to now we don't know when or where and why. There are many theories about the death of Fr. Popieluszko. The first and the most popular theory is that Fr. Popiełuszko died because he was dangerous for communism. But in 2001, a prosecutor from Lublin working on the case discovered that Fr. Popiełuszko was tortured six days in a military bunker, and that officers of the secret police nad KGB wanted to have him as a spy in Rome next to John Paul II. We are almost sure that Fr. Popiełuszko refused to be a spy and that's why he was killed.'

Historians admit they are not sure who commissioned the horrible crime directly. 'Was this the communist party headed by Wojciech Jaruzelski, was it someone else from among the authorities, who was looking for a solution to the problem that Fr. Jerzy was for communists, or was it the security service on their own, with the approval of the minister of course,' said Professor Jan  Zaryn of the Institute of Public Remembrance.

Fr. Popiełuszko remains a hero not only among Catholics in Poland. His tomb at St. Stanislaus Kostka church in Warsaw is visited by crowds of pilgrims from around the world.

Main anniversary ceremonies were held there on Sunday and Warsaw metropolitan archbishop Kazimierz Nycz told the faithful gathered there, including high state officials, clergy, Solidarity movement representatives and crowds of Warsaw citizens, that the beatification process of Fr. Jerzy is well advanced.

Father Popiełuszko attracts so much attention not only because of his martyrdom, comments Jacek Dziedzina of "Gosc Niedzielny" - Poland's largest Catholic magazine and second best-selling weekly in Poland. 'A lot of people still visit Fr. Popiełuszko's grave not only because he was martyred. He still is the symbol of bravery. Bravery, which we need not only in totalitarian countries. I think people want to remember him because also today we need brave bishops, brave priests and brave lay people who don't try to be politically correct stars, but real witnesses,' said Jacek Dziedzina.